Music

Chiwetel Ejiofor’s ‘The Boy Who Harnessed Wind” heads to Netflix this March

Chiwetel Ejiofor’s much-anticipated directorial debut ‘The Boy Who Harnessed Wind’ has been one of the most talked about projects from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Based on a true life story, novelised by Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, ‘The Boy Who Harnessed Wind’ is an adapted screenplay based on Malawi’s famine crisis of 2001. Ejiofor’s film follows young Simba, a 13-year-old schoolboy, who has hopes of helping his famine struck community.

Like a lot of post-colonial African stories, themes of modernity are juxtaposed against prevailing traditions like praying to the gods for basic amenities like water. With the help of a support system including Chiwetel Ejiofor himself who plays Simba’s father, Trywell Kamkwamba and Aïssa Maïga, who plays Simba’s mother Agnes, the 13-year-old figures out a way to use the wind to help his people—as the title implies.

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind is expected on Netflix next month, as well as at selected theatres.